Cable reel locomotive



July 12, 1932.

S. W. FARNHAM CABLE REEL LOGOMOTIVF/ 2 Sheets-Sheet Filed NOV. 5, 1930 @(MQL 4 P flii orng y 1932- s. w. FARNHAM CABLE REEL LOCOMOTIVE Filed Nov. 5, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet l 25 cable.

When a double conductor flexible cable has 40 ing and not burn.

45 cost of this cable is relativelyrhigh.

Patented July 12, 1932 v ear NFQFEQ SIDNEY w. FARNHAM, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, assreivonro GOODMAN 'MANUrAcTuR-f me COMPANY, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A coeroaarron or rumors CABLE REEnLoooiaorivn Application filed. November mote'from the trolley line or other source of'power and reduce to a minimum the possibility of explosion in the mlne caused by areing orburnmg of :the cable dueto failure of insulation of'the cable or running over of the cable by the locomotive. V

The present practi'e is to provide gather.- ing-locomotives with a double conductor flexiblecable wound on a single cable reel. Due

to the proximity of the two conductors to each other, insulation failure in one conductor is almost certain to cause a shortcircuit in the cable with the resultant arcing and burning of the cable. Also the resistanceyof such acable when wound on a cable reel and a locomotive is under a heavy load causes heating of the cable and reel which softens the'cable insulation and is-liable to cause a failure of insulation and short circuit of the been run over by the locomotive and severed, the danger of short circuiting of thecable and burning of the entire cable is present.

' Since it is diiiicult to splice a severed double conductor cable and since the insulation at the point of the splice is weak, there is danger of insulation failure at this splice and such a failurewhen the cable is woundon the cable reel is certain to destroy and burn the entire cable reel. 7

At present there is no double conductor flexible cable or insulation known which will stand up under this short circuiting and arc- Such burning of the cable is very dangerous and expensivein that it is liable to causean explosion in a gaseous.

mine and will always cause a great loss whether the mine 13- gaseous or not since the The device of my-invention eliminates this danger and expense in'that it provides a new of my invention, a cable, reel, generally 111-:

56 ner which separately supports and allows for 5, ieao. Serial Nob 9 3,480.

the winding in or paying off of positive and negative power conductors independently of each other.

In carrying out conductor cables are provided for the locomotive instead of the usual doublecondu'ctor cable and these are eachwound on an insu- 'lated' winding drum independently driven from a common source of power, which drums maintain a tension on the cables independently of'each other.

my invention two single My invention may bemore clearlyiund'erstood with reference to the accompanying drawings wherelnr Figurel is a top plan View ofthe embodying my invention with parts broken away v "Figure 2 is an enlarged partial fragmentary plan view ofthe device shown inFigure v if c show the details of my IIIVQIi- 1 with parts broken away andin section to more clearly tion; l

' Figure 3 is an enlarged partial fragmen tary sidefelevation of the device sh'own' in Figure l with .parts broken away and in section to more clearly-show the details of my invention; Figure is a sectional view taken on line l4@ of Figure 3; n "Y Figure 5 is sectional view taken on line 5 '5 of Figure 3; and

Figure 6 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 66 of Figure a;

Like numerals refer to like parts throughi g y 7 ,7 Referring now in particular to the draw ings, the device embodying my invention out the'v arious figures.

comprises a mine locomotive-1 including a frame 2 supported on wheels '8 andaxles 4. The locomotive 1 is of a usual constructionand is preferably provided with a 'pairof direct current electric motors 5 operatively connected to the axles i and wheels 3 tomove the locomotive about the mine, which mo-j tors are controlled by: acontroller generally indicated at Gin a usual manner. I

Referring now in particular to the details dicatedat .7, is provided. 2 This cable reel differs from the ordinary cable reel used on become grounded to the locomotive or one of I cable reel locomotives in that it comprises a plurality of 'winding drums, each drum of .well known to the art so will not herein be payed ,offfrom the winding j drums 9- and .8

which is insulated from the other and is adapted to receive and independently wind on or pay offa single conductor cable and malntain a tension'on said cables when being paid H and as herein shown comprises a lower winding drum 8 and an upper winding drum 9., These drums are both mounted so b 'as to be rotatable about a common vertical axis but it may be understood that these drums may rotate aboutahorizontal axis as Well as a vertical axis.

A single conductor cable is provided.

This cable is connectible with the main source a worm 17 fixed thereto.

meshes with and drivesa worm; gear 18;keye'dc of power supply at one of its ends and has its opposite end connectible with and adaptable to be Wound on or payed olffrom'the upper winding drum 9; A suitable means 6 is provided to connect this cable through the drum 9 with the locomotive circuit to supply power to the locomotive motors '75; which vmeans 1s ofnan ordinary construction and described in detail. 2 p

Another cable 11 is connectiblewith an outside source of power and adaptable to be .woundonor payed off from the lower wind- I ing drum 8 to supply power to the locomotive 61 circuit in a usual manner. u Whenoperating on the cablevreel the loco-- 1 motive circuit is disconnected from the'mine rails so electric power: is-supplied to said locomotive through the cables 10 and 11 which are connectedto, and wound on, or

respectively; This feature is fully'described in-my- Reissue Patents No. 16,700 and'No.

16,721; and eliminates the possibility of'arc- "i0 mine rails.

ing between the locomotive wheelsland the The winding drums and 9are differential ,ly driven from a common source of-power so as tocompensate for additional'load on one cable or the other and allow for fouling, of

one or the other of'these cables to prevent breakage of either of said cables and are insulated from each other to eliminate the possibility. of a short circuit between these drums incase one cableor the other should the drums. Thus, sinceeach cable orcondu ctor is insulated and wound on a separate insulated :winding drumfindependently of possibility of the-cables grounding when wound on their separate reels and an insulation failure in one ca'blewill not ,afiect the other cable. I I V 7 :It shouldlherein be notedthat in case the I locomotive does run over and sever one conductor or cable that this will not affect the other cable, and that such a severed cable'may be more easily spliced than a double conductor cable, and that a failure of the splice in one cable will not afi'ect the other cable.

Referring now to the details of the winding drums 8 and 9 and the means of driving these drums an electric motor 12 is preferably provided for actuating said drums.

The motor 12- is fastened to the locomotive frame 2 and has'an armature shaft 13 operatively connected with a horizontal shaft 14 manner. The horizontal shaft 14 is journaled ma worm and worm gear housing 16 and has "by means of a suitable coupling in a usual 7 to the lower portion of a driving' member 19. V

The driving member 19 isrotatable abouta vides'a means for receiving the electric con-- ductors for conductingelectric power from the windingdrums, 8 and 9-to them'ain; line electric circuit.

I The worm gear18 ber 19' are supportedona suitable-thrust bearing indicated at 21, 'and zthe driving" and'the driving mein member l9'extends outwardly and upwardly I from the worm gear 18 and forms a casing for friction drive mechanism for" the winding drums 8 and 9.-

A disk 23 (see Figs. 3 and issupported on the inner top surface of the drivingmember '19 and is rotatable about the vertical support member 20; V The disk23 is provided with annular friction disks 24 on its top-and bottomsurfaces and the lower annular friction disk 24 engages thetop surface" of the driving member 19. Apertures 25 are provided'adjacent the inner periphery of thedisk 23 which are engaged by jaws-27 onthe lower end of a hub '28 depending fromr an d integral with the upper winding drum 9.

The hub 28 is journaled'on the verticalsup-i port .member 20 for rotatable mo.vement thereabout and is integral with and supports the entire upper winding drum 9 which, in turn, is supported on the disk 23. 'Thus'the no 7 a winding drum 9 forces the lower friction'disk o 24 to engage the driving member 19 so, rotation of said driving member will cause rotation of the disk 23 and the cable-'reeldrurn 9'.

Ajdri'ving plate 30 is engageable withtlie' ing member 19 so rotation .ofsaid driving member will cause rotationof the plate 30,

disk 24, which means herein-comprise a plurality of compressionsprings 34 interposed between the top portion of thedrivingplate .top annular friction disk-24 and isprovided v with ears 31 which engage slots 33 in the driv- 30 and stops 35 on rods 36 which pass through -the driving plate 3O near their lower end and extend upwardly and pass through plates 37 and 38. The upper ends of the rods 36 pass through an annular ring 39-and are engaged by th'e'under portion of a cover 41 for the driving member 19. Thecover 41 engages the annular ring 39 and rods 36 and is threaded onthe driving member 19 to provide disk 46 for supporting said hub and the wind ,ing drum 8 on said disk and drivingsaid drum therefrom. The disk 46 is provided with annular friction disks 47 on its upper and lower surfaces and is supported on and engages the driving, plate 37 supported on the driving member .19.

driving plate 37 is provided with a plurality of ears 48 which engage notches 49 in the driving member 19 and is supported on said drivingmember by engagement of said ears with said notches. T he driving plate 38 is similar to the plate 30 and is provided with plurality of cars 50'which are engaged in notches 51 in the driving member 19 and the under portion'of said driving plate engages the-top annular friction disk 47.

Compression springs 52 are mounted on the rods 36 near the top end thereof and are interposed betweenthe annular ring'39 and driving plate 38 to engage said'drivmg plate with the friction disk 47 and rotate said friction disk and the disk 46 upon rotationof said driving plate. Pressureof the driving plate 38 on the friction disk 47 is'regulated by the cover 41 as has hereinbefore been described in connection with the plate 30 and disk 23. v a g It may thus be seen that the winding drum 19is supported on the disk 23 which, in turn,

is fsupportedon the driving member 19 and that an annular friction"diskjis interposed between the disk 23 and said driving member. It may also be seen that the windingdrum 8 is supported on the disk 46 which, in turn, is supported on the driving'plate 37, which driving plate is supportedpn the driving member 19, and that the friction disk 47 is interposedbetween the disk 46 and said driving plate. 'Thus the weight of each winding drumdeterminesthe driving force for driv-- ing said cable reel from the driving member 19 and as the cables "10 and 11 are wound on their respective winding drums or reelsthis driving force is increased;

It may now be seen that a frictionally controlled means has been, providedfor-driv- The ing the cable reel drums 8 and 9 independently or simultaneously 0f eachother so one of these drums will be stopped upon fouling of its cable due'to slippage between the friction disks and driving members, thus preventing; breakage of the cable upon such fouling and providing a means for maintainingtension on each cable independent of theother cable. hus when the locomotive is moving towards its source of power supply the cables 10 and 11 are wound on their respective windingdrums', the slippage of the friction disks 24 on thedriving member 19 and friction disk 47 in the drivingplate 37 provides a differvides mea-nes for compensating for the dilference in tension between thetwo cables so both 1 of said cables may be maintained at an even tension with respect to. each other. 7 This provides a safe and effective mean'sfor transmitting the electric power to a mine locomotive in that each cable is insulated'from the other and wound ona sep'arate drum and each cable winding drum is insulated from the other, and in that the entire locomotivej;

circuit is insulated from the mine. railsso a break or short circuit. or failure of insu lation in one cable will not affect the other cable and thus will not cause arcing, spark.

ing or burning up of the cables or winding drums.

lVhile I have shown herein and described one embodiment of my invention 1tw1llbe understood that theflarrangementand construction of the parts may be altered without departing from the spirit ands'cop'e thereof; Furthermore, Ido not wish to be construed as limitingmyself to the precise detailsof construction or arrangements of parts' herein shown and described except as specifically limited 'in-the appended claims; I claim as my invention: 7 V

1, In combination with a cable reel locomotive, means for supplying power ,to'said locomotive comprising a plurality of single conductorcables insulated from each other and having connection with an outside source of power, winding'means for supporting said cables on said locomotivecomprising a sep arate winding drunifor winding in or paying off -each'cable, said winding drums being insulated-from each other and rotatable about a common vertical axis,.and means for independently or simultaneously driving said winding drums comprising a motor, a

driving member, a disk engaging one of said drums for supporting saiddr-um and rotat mg said drum therewith, a friction disk in;

terposed between said irst mentioned disk ice ential drive for each winding drum and pro- 3 a y ing member, adisk engaged by the hub of betweensaid second mentioned disk and said driving plate.

2. In combination with a cable reel locomotive, means for supplying powerto said locomotive comprising a plurality of single conductor cables insulated from each other and having connection with an outside source of power, winding meansfor supporting said I and rotating said drum therewith, a friction cables onsaid locomotive comprising a separate winding drum for winding in or paying off each cable, said winding drums being insulated from each other and rotatable about a common vertical axis, and means for independently or simultaneously driving said windingdrumscomprising a motor, a drivone of said drums forsupporting said drum disk interposed between said first mentioned V '3'. In combination with acable reel loco-' disk and said driving iii-ember, a driving plate supported by said driving member and rotated thereby, a disk engaged by the hub of said other drum for supporting and rotating said other drum, and a. friction disk interposed between said second mentioned disk and said driving plate.

"motive, 'means'for supplying power to said locomotive-comprising a plurality of single conductor cables insulated from, each other and'having connection w th an outside source of power, winding means for supporting said cables on said locomotive comprising-a separate winding drum for winding n or paying.

off each cable, said winding drums being insulated from each other and rotatable about a common vertical axis, and meansfor independently or simultaneously.driving said-"- winding drums comprisinga'motor, a driving member, a disk engaged bythe hub of one of said drums for support ng said drum and a rotating said drum therewith, a friction disk interposed between sa d first ment oned disk and said drivingmember, 'EL dIIVIRg plate above said disk and rotated by said driving member, a friction disk interposed between said pl a'te and said disk, means for engaging said plate with said friction disk, a

driving plate supported by said 7 driving member above said last mentioned plate'and driven by said driving member, a disk engaged bythe hub of said other drum for supporting and rotating said other drum, a friction disk interposed between'said disk and said driving plate, a'drivingplate above said disk androtated by said driving-member,,a friction diskinterposed between said Q last mentioned driving plate and sa'idfdisk,

andmeansfor engaging said last mentioned driving plate with said friction disk.

' 4; In combination with a cable reel locojmoti'v'e, means for supplying power to said locomot ve comprisinga plurality of single conductor'cables insulated 'from each other andhaving connection with anoutside source of power, winding'mea-ns for supportingsaid cables on said locomotive comprising a separate winding drum for windingin or paying 3 'ofl each cable, said winding drums being insulated from each other'and rotatable about a common vertical axis, and means for independently or simultaneously driving said winding drums comprising a motor, a driv ing member, va diskengaged by the j hub of one of said drums forsupporting said drum and rotating said drum therewith, a friction disk interposed between saidfirst mentioned disk and saiddriving member,z-a driving plate above said disk and rotated by said driving member, a friction disk interposed between'said plate and said disk, means for engaging said plate .with said friction disk comprising a plurality of compression 'springmembers, a driving plate supported tioned, driving plate with-said friction disk comprising-a plurality-of compression spring 7 members 7, v V I e 5. In combinationiwith'a' cable reell,oco-

motive, means for supplying power to said 10,- comotive comprising a pluralityof conductor cables'insulated from'each other and having connection with an outside, source of power, winding means for supporting said cables on said locomotive comprising a separate winding drum for winding in or paying off each cable, said winding drums being in sulated from each other and rotatable about a common vertical axis, and means for independently'or simultaneously driving said winding drums comprising a motor, a driv- 1'10 ing member, a disk, friction means interposed between said disk and said drivingmember vand having bearing engagement. with said driving member, a hub depending from one of saiddrums engageable with and support- '115 ed bysaid disk,the weight 'of said drum engaging said friction means with said disk and driving member, a driving plate supported by said driving member and rotated there'- a by, a seco'ndadi'sk,friction means interposed between said secondfdisk e and [said driving plate, a hub depending fromsai'dvother drum journaled on said first mentioned hub and en gageable with and supported by said second disk, 'the weight of said drum engagingsaid 1:2 i

friction means with said diskv and vdriving member, and means for operatively. connecting said motor withfsaid driving'member.

6. In combination'with a cable reel locomotive, means for supplyingvpower to said I single 100' locomotive comprising a pair of winding ing member and having frictional driving drums, each of said drums having a cable connected thereto and adapted to be wound thereon and rotatable about a common vertical axis, a driving member, a hub depending from one of said drums and having supporting engagement with said driving member, and a hub depending from said other drum having bearing engagement with said hub of said first mentioned drum and having supporting engagement with said driving member above the point of engagement of said first mentioned hub with said driving member.

7. In combination with a cable reel locomotive, means for supplying power to said locomotive comprising a pair of winding drums, each of said drums having a cable connected thereto and adapted to be wound thereon and rotatableabout a common vertical axis, a motor, and means for simultaneously or independently driving said winding drums from said motor comprising a driving member driven by said motor, a friction device supported on said driving member, a hub depending from one of said drums and adapted to bear on and besupported by said friction device, another friction device supported on said driving member above said first mentioned friction device and a hub depending from said other drum having bearing engagement with said hub of said first mentioned drum and adapted to bear on and be supported by said second mentioned friction device.

8. In combination with a cable reel 10- comotive, means for supplying power to said locomotive comprising a pair of winding drums rotatable about a common vertical axis, each of said drums having a cable connected thereto and adapted to be wound thereon, and means for driving said winding drums whereby the driving torque of each of said winding drums varies with the amount of cable thereon comprising a separate driving member supporting each of said winding drums and having frictional driving engagement therewith, said driving members being arranged one above the other.

9. In combination with a cable reel 10- comotive, means for supplying power to said locomotive comprising a pair of winding drums rotatable about a common vertical axis, each of said drums having a cable connected thereto and adapted to be wound thereon, and means for independently or simultaneously driving said drums from a common source of power whereby the driving torque of each of said winding drums varies with the amount of cable thereon, comprising adriving member supporting one of said drums and having frictional driving engagement therewith, and another driving member supporting said other drum arranged beneath said first mentioned drivber, 1930.

SIDNEY w. FARNHAM. 

